Relating to rights of certain agricultural workers to express milk in the workplace; and declaring an emergency.

Milk-expression rights expand to farmworkers

Oregon law extends workplace milk-expression rights to farmworkers and employees in administrative, executive, or professional jobs. These protections cover employees expressing milk for their child age 18 months or younger. Employers must provide reasonable, generally unpaid breaks each time employees need to express milk. Employers with 10 or fewer employees are exempt from providing breaks only when doing so causes significant difficulty or expense. That hardship depends on the business’s size, resources, and structure. Employers must make reasonable efforts to provide a private place near the work area, not a public restroom. Those efforts need not impose undue hardship. Employees should give reasonable notice when returning after childbirth, but employers cannot discipline them for failing to give notice. When feasible, milk-expression breaks should overlap with other rest or meal breaks. Contractually required paid rest time remains paid up to the amount required by the contract. Employers may allow workers to make up unpaid break time before or after their shifts. Employers need not pay for that time if workers decline to make it up. Unpaid milk-expression breaks count as paid work time when calculating hours for employer health insurance contributions. Employers may temporarily change job duties when needed to accommodate milk expression. School districts must adopt workplace breastfeeding policies and designate private spaces near employees’ work areas, excluding public restrooms. Policies must appear in employee handbooks, and location lists must be accessible in each school’s central office and district administrative office. Oregon’s Bureau of Labor and Industries has rulemaking authority to implement and enforce these requirements. The law took effect immediately upon passage.